Eryn Bree
by Tahm the Lame
Summary: What the dock hands must think, to see a short, pale girl weeping against a starship...


Muttering a few choice Huttese phrases under her breath, Eryhn Bree sheathed her knives, gave the prone form a kick, and walked quickly from the dark alley. Her old familiar twinge of conscious spoke up, but she shoved it back down again, rationalizing that it was all his fault, anyway. If he hadn't been such a spiced-out jerk, he wouldn't have gotten hurt. And besides, it wasn't as if he were dead or anything…  
  
She had to control her temper, Eryhn reprimanded herself for the millionth time as she brushed off her mundane – if slightly tattered – street clothes and strolled casually towards the docking bay that housed her ship. That temper had always gotten her into trouble, ever since she was a little kid, struggling to make her way alone in a generally unfriendly galaxy. The disappearance of her parents had left Eryhn to wander the streets from a very early age, and because of her small stature and unhealthy pallor, she had been picked on mercilessly by stronger, bigger street urchins. After having been roughed around a few times, unable to back up her insane bragging claims, she had realized that there were other skills she could develop to prove her worth.  
  
Eryhn grinned wryly, dodging a few drunken patrons in front of a bar, remembering those first days of discovery. Unobtrusively hanging around the space ports, she would hear tales of the galaxy by day, and by night she would curl up to keep warm and watch the twinkling dots of light above her, swearing that she would visit each and every one of them some day. There wasn't much she could do at the moment to further that dream, however, and so she picked up what information she could groundside.   
  
Computer skills were surprisingly easy to develop – as was pick pocketing. Eryhn could snitch whatever she needed to survive, and the rest of her time was focused on learning the various and sundry tidbits of life in space. Each gem of knowledge caused her to thirst for even more, and soon she was so confident with that lifestyle that she attracted the attention of an old man…a spacer…   
  
"Hey, watch where you're going!" a dull-looking woman snapped, and Eryhn was thrown backwards out of her memories. Catching herself on the woman's arm, she apologized profusely until she was shrugged off and the woman bustled past.  
  
Eryhn stared after her for a heartbeat, then grinned and opened her fist to reveal a credit chip. Chuckling quietly, she flipped it into the air and pocketed it, heading on her way once more. Gaeron would have been proud.  
  
Gaeron…The best years of her life had been spent on his ship, The Gray Lady. Gaeron had seen the promise in her, as he always said, and soon had taught her all he knew about piloting, astrogating, and spacer lore. She had seen the stars from the cockpit of The Lady – and they were as beautiful as she had imagined.  
  
Sighing inwardly, Eryhn nodded a greeting as she passed a worker in the dry dock. The sight of The Gray Lady lifted her heart every time. It was like coming home. Everything was perfect when she was on board…all but one thing. She missed Gaeron.  
  
She rested her forehead against the cool hull of the ship and closed her eyes for a moment. Gaeron had been…well, like a father to her, she supposed. She could remember their last run together perfectly, every painful moment etched in her mind for all eternity. They had been shipping for an independent contractor, and everything was running as smoothly as normal. But then, only a day before The Lady reached her destination, something had gone horribly wrong.  
  
Gaeron always insisted on taking daily walks around the ship, with the dual purpose of making sure nothing was malfunctioning and also to "keep spry", as he put it. Often Eryhn accompanied him, for the sheer enjoyment of his company. He told magnificent stories of past adventures – some fictional - and it was in the midst of one particular story that he stopped suddenly and started gasping for air. With all the knowledge she had gained over the years, Eryhn was completely unprepared for this, and she could do nothing but hold his hand and weep silently as she watched the only father she had ever known pass out of this life into the next on the cold floor of a rapidly moving starship.  
  
There was nothing else to be done. The ship pulled out of hyper drive on time and Eryhn delivered the cargo, receiving the payment coolly and professionally. Only afterwards did she take the ship to the emptiest part of space she could think of and stay there. Once she had finished her crying, she took Gaeron's body to an empty cargo bay and stood over it, taking a last look at her mentor…and her father. With that image burned into her memory, she walked out of the bay, sealed it, and spaced his body. It was what he had wanted, but she still had to turn away – she had to put it out of her mind if she was going to function normally until her grief was gone.  
  
Eryhn opened her eyes and looked at her reflection in The Lady's hull. Her face was pale, as usual, and framed by red hair that, even when braided down, never seemed to want to behave. Tears glittered, unshed, in green eyes, and she had to laugh at herself. What the dock hands must think, to see a short, pale girl weeping against a starship. A strange weight swung against her hip as she laughed, and all emotion was pushed to the side as she remembered just why she was in such a hurry.  
  
Into the ship she went, and as she cleared the atmosphere she bid farewell to that city. Unfortunate that she had to leave for such a little incident…but she never stayed around one place too long, anyway. There were always more sites to see, more adventures to have, and Eryhn was determined to have every one of them that she could.  
  
The Gray Lady glided through the stars like a silent ghost, and Eryhn sat back in the cockpit, watching the stars fly past. She took from the bag at her side a pair of electrobinoculars and smiled slowly, shaking her head. That stupid man…An "important personage" in the city, she was told, but he still felt the need to spy into other people's rooms at inconvenient times. A pity. At least he had learned an important lesson, and she had gotten a new toy out of it. The city wasn't exciting enough to go back to, anyway.  
  
The Gray Lady sailed on, and Eryhn Bree began talking softly to herself. The story that Gaeron had begun that fateful day had never been given an ending. This had always seemed wrong to her, and so she had taken to finishing it herself. Each day brought a new ending to the story, but they all had at least one particular thing in common. As the story wound to a close, Eryhn leaned forward and watched the galaxy go whirling around her.  
  
"In the end," she finished, as she always did, "they all lived happily ever after among the stars." 


End file.
